ADC Condemns Israel's Deadly Raids in West Bank

Washington, DC, June 23rd, 2014 - The
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) strongly
condemns the recent raids by Israeli security forces
throughout the occupied West Bank, killing of innocent
Palestinian civilians, and detention of hundreds of
Palestinians — including children and prisoners released
in the Gilad Shalit deal — without trial. Israel continues
to systematically violate Palestinians' universal human
rights and illegally occupy Palestinian land under the
auspices of Israeli security.

In response to the recent
alleged kidnappings of three Israeli boys, Israel has
engaged in collective punishment and disproportionately
devastated the civilian Palestinian population. Over 1,000
sites have been searched and the Israeli Defense Forces
(IDF) have kept the city of Hebron on complete lockdown for
ten days. Today, Mondoweiss reported that “over 350
Palestinians have been arrested in the West Bank and five
Palestinians have been shot dead.”

While ADC
unequivocally condemns the kidnapping or mistreatment of any
human life, Israel has demonstrated a consistent pattern of
valuing the lives and rights of Israeli settlers at the
expense of Palestinians. ADC adopted the #BringBackOurBoys campaign in order to
highlight this moral discrepancy.

ADC supports the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS)
movement as a nonviolent way to compel the end of
Israel’s continuous human rights violations and illegal
occupation of Palestinian territory. Through these
nonviolent movements, activists are seeking to create
international pressure on Israel to abide by international
law and end the occupation of Palestine.

Last week, the
United Methodist Church decided to sell over $100,000 of
stock in G4S, the world's largest private security company
that profits from Israeli prisons. The Methodist church said
that the decision to divest was made “due in part to
concerns about the company’s involvement in human rights
violations in the Israeli prison system and the military
occupation of Palestinian territories.” Bill Gates also
recently sold his entire stake in G4S, and the security
company itself has pledged to end Israeli prison contracts
over the next five years.

On Friday, the Presbyterian
Church (U.S.A.) voted 310 to 303 to divest from companies
that aid the Israeli occupation. The Church held about $21
million in Caterpillar, Hewlett-Packard, and Motorola
Solutions. These companies profit from the illegal Israeli
occupation by selling bulldozers, surveillance technology,
and equipment used at checkpoints that all contribute to the
oppression of the Palestinian people.

Many Jewish
activists with Jewish Voice for Peace attended the
convention to show support for human rights and divestment
from Israel. At a time when the Israeli Likud government
has been employing the tactic of “divide-and-conquer” by
passing a law to label Palestinian Christians as
non-Arab, this solidarity amongst progressive Christian
and Jewish organizations sends a strong statement that we
are all on the same page.

The rapidly culminating momentum
behind divestment from Israel demonstrates that the
Palestinian question is not a racial or religious issue, but
a fundamentally moral issue and matter of universal human
rights. ADC congratulates the Presbyterian Church and all
BDS allies for standing on the right side of history.

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